Just before the season ended, we had a chance to speak with former Padres right-hander/writer Dirk Hayhurst. In the two weeks since, he has gotten married and become a member of the Toronto Blue Jays. We recently caught up with Dirk to chat about these latest life changes and what the future may bring. Ducksnorts: [...]
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Links for 14 Oct 08
I’m trying out a tool that pulls links from my Delicious bookmarks and publishes them here on a semi-regular basis… How much should Ben Sheets get? (Hardball Times). Victor Wang uses projected performance and risk analysis to predict that free-agent right-hander Ben Sheets will get $55-65 million for 4 or 5 years. The methodology seems [...]
Writing the Book (13 Oct 08)
I’m still making good progress on the Ducksnorts 2009 Baseball Annual. This week I worked on player profiles and dashboards. My goal was to complete eight of ‘em, but I ended up doing 13. Next up: a few more full profiles to write, plus several shorter pieces on guys who didn’t contribute as much; I [...]
OBG08 Revisited: Pitchers
We’re looking back at our pre-season community projections. On Wednesday we covered the hitters; today we turn to the pitchers. Left-Handers Justin Hampson, 2008 IP ERA Projected 48 4.21 Actual 30.2 2.93 Our most optimistic projection had Hampson at a 3.50 ERA. Joe Thatcher, 2008 IP ERA Projected 58 2.86 Actual 25.2 8.42 [...]
Writing the Book (6 Oct 08)
I’m happy to report that the first week of serious work on the Ducksnorts 2009 Baseball Annual went well. I made progress on several fronts: I had some good discussions with my editorial advisory board, which is just a fancy name for folks who are helping guide me as we move forward with the project. [...]
We’ll See You When We See You
The season is over. Thank goodness for that. The Padres played brutal baseball for most of 2008, and fans were in a pretty sour mood all year. Unfortunately I let the negativity get to me more than I should have. I suppose it’s safe to admit this now, because I no longer feel it’s likely [...]
Chatting with Dirk Hayhurst
The Padres selected right-hander Dirk Hayhurst in the eighth round of the 2003 draft out of Kent State University. Before Hayhurst made his big-league debut earlier this September, he was known by many fans for his off-beat and sometimes poignant stories of life in the minors. I recently had the opportunity to “talk” with Dirk [...]
It Could Be Worse; Just Ask the Mariners
Bullet points this morning: I’ve got a new piece up at Baseball Digest Daily that talks about the challenges facing the Seattle Mariners this off-season. Here in San Diego, the Padres have their work cut out for them as they attempt to rebuild, but there’s something to be said for not owing Jarrod Washburn, Miguel [...]
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